By ROY HESS | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
The night clearly belonged to the Rivera Lady Raiders.
Make no mistake, Los Fresnos never made it easy, yet Rivera seized the momentum from the very beginning and swept past the Lady Falcons 25-14, 25-19, 25-23 in Tuesday’s showdown at Rivera between undefeated co-leaders in the District 32-6A volleyball race.
It was Los Fresnos’ first loss in district in more than two years. The Lady Falcons won the 32-6A title during each of the past two seasons with a 14-0 record.
“Rivera was ready for us,” Lady Falcons coach Becky Woods said. “We came out too nonchalant and started out the whole match wrong. You could tell that from the very first point (when we served into the net). From there, it just went downhill.
“I give Rivera credit,” Woods added. “They were ready for us tonight. We’ll see them again at our place (in the second round of district).”
Across the gym, the Rivera players, coaches and fans were in full celebration mode.
“Our girls played awesome tonight. They did a fantastic job,” Lady Raiders coach Elizabeth Avelar-Guerra said. “They were talking to each other and communicating, they were playing strong defense and they were hitting well.
“They played together like a real team,” she added. “I haven’t seen them play that well for quite awhile. They really came together tonight.”
With one match left on Saturday to complete the first round of 32-6A, Rivera owns sole possession of the conference lead with a 6-0 record, while Los Fresnos is alone in second place at 5-1.
It was a fairly close match for the most part, except for the opening game when Rivera was up 16-12 before pulling away to win the first set 25-14.
Los Fresnos led 13-12 and 14-13 in the second game only to see the Lady Raiders go ahead for good, 15-14, on a kill by Stephanie Garza and eventually take the set 25-19.
In the third game, Los Fresnos pulled to within one point, 24-23, thanks to a block by the Lady Falcons’ Giselle Ibarra. From there, however, another kill by Garza gave the Lady Raiders the point they needed to take the set 25-23 and sweep the match.
Garza sparked Rivera with 17 kills and eight digs. Litzy Medina added seven kills, six digs and an ace. Also for Rivera, Kourtney Shears had 33 assists, 13 digs, four kills and four aces, while libero Madelaine Blanco had 22 digs and an ace.
Also contributing to the winning effort for the Lady Raiders were Mayra Martinez with eight kills, two blocks and two digs, and Victoria Zuniga with six kills, two blocks and one dig.
Ibarra led the Lady Falcons with 13 kills. Sarah Villarreal added 11 assists, two kills and four aces, while Martha Ramirez had 11 assists and libero Isis Delgado had 24 digs and 24 service receptions. Sandra Salazar contributed four blocks and one kill, while Emma Stambaugh had two kills and one block.
District action continues at noon Saturday in 32-6A as Rivera visits Harlingen South and Los Fresnos plays at Weslaco High.